THE REACH OF WAR: TRANSFER OF POWER; Deadlock Seen On Presidency In Iraqi Talks

American, Iraqi and United Nations officials deadlocked Saturday over the selection of an Iraqi president, even as they appeared to strike a deal over the most important cabinet ministers for the new government that is to take over on July 1.

On one side of the deadlock are the United Nations envoy, Lakdar Brahimi, and the chief American administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, who are backing the former foreign minister, Adnan Pachachi. Leaders of the Iraqi Governing Council support a rival, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar. Both men are Sunnis.

Some Iraqi officials said Saturday that Mr. Brahimi had reached agreements with Mr. Bremer and Iraqi leaders on six important cabinet positions. Two people close to the Iraqi Governing Council said Mr. Brahimi had reached agreements to name three Shiites, two Kurds and one Sunni to high-level jobs in the cabinet. That mix reflects the ethnic and religious balancing act under way.

According to these sources, the two Kurds were Barham Salih, who would become the foreign minister, and Hoshyar Zebari, who would be named the defense minister. The Kurds, deprived of the top jobs of prime minister and president, would get these two important cabinet posts. Three members of the majority Shiite population would be in line for the cabinet: Adel Abdul Mahdi as the finance minister, Thamir Ghadbhan as the oil minister, and Dr. Raja Khuzaie as the health minister.

American officials say they are backing Mr. Pachachi in large part because they believe he would adhere to the interim constitution that was hammered out earlier this year and is meant to guide the new government until elections are held.

Mr. Pachachi played a prominent role in drafting the interim constitution, which provides for broad individual rights, a largely secular governmental framework and a federal system that grants broad autonomy to the Kurds. There is concern that a new Iraqi government, swept by majority opinion, might decide to disregard its protections.

In this situation, the Iraqi Governing Council has been pressing its views aggressively. ''Ambassador Bremer, he will leave, and the U.N., they will leave,'' said Yondam Kanna, a member of the Iraqi council. ''We are the ones who will have to answer to the Iraqi people.''

One person close to the Iraqi Governing Council said Mr. Brahimi had reached agreements on the choices for two vice presidents: Ibrahim Jafari, the leader of the Dawa Party; and the Razh Shawees, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Party. ''It's 99 percent certain,'' one of the insiders said of all these candidates, though some change is possible as the whole package is finally assembled. If the selections are made official, they would reflect the balance Mr. Brahimi has been trying to strike between the majority Shiite population and Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

Mr. Salih, Mr. Zebari and Mr. Shawees are all ethnic Kurds, and their selection seems to reflect a desire to placate the Kurdish leadership, which had demanded that a Kurd be appointed either president or prime minister. Some American and Iraqi leaders worry that the Kurds, who flourished under American protection in 1990's, will be tempted to try to detach themselves from the Iraqi state.

The activity followed the surprise selection on Friday of Dr. Iyad Alawi, an exile closely tied to the Central Intelligence Agency, as the prime minister.

Dr. Alawi, a secular Shiite, emerged as the top candidate when he gathered the support of some of the country's most powerful political parties. The selection surprised many Iraqis as well as officials at the United Nations, who found it improbable that Mr. Brahimi would appoint an American-backed Iraqi exile like Dr. Alawi to the lead the country.

Negotiators said they hoped to complete the selection of the government's 26 ministers as early as Sunday. The formation of an interim government is a crucial step in restoring full Iraqi sovereignty. The government is expected to stay in power until early next year, when nationwide elections are scheduled.

The Bush administration and the Iraqi Governing Council asked Mr. Brahimi to help put together a government that, while unelected, would claim legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis, and contain a balance among the country's religious and ethnic groups.

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The presidency is designed to have limited powers, but is nonetheless important for its symbolic value. In the ethnic and religious bargaining that has unfolded here in recent weeks, Iraqi leaders agreed that the office should be filled by a Sunni Arab, as a consolation prize to the ethnic group most closely identified with Saddam Hussein and his government.

According to Iraqi leaders, Mr. Brahimi and Mr. Bremer lined up behind Mr. Pachachi, an 80-year-old former diplomat who is a personal friend of Mr. Brahimi's and a strong supporter of the American presence here. Iraqi leaders said most of the Iraqi Governing Council supported Mr. Ghazi, an American-educated engineer who spent several years in exile in Saudi Arabia.

The dispute reflects the surprisingly strong role being played by the Iraqi Governing Council, an American-appointed collection of political leaders that is collectively derided by many Iraqis. Individually, though, many of the members of the council can call on significant grass-roots support, and they have been invoking that power in the negotiations over jobs in the interim government.

Iraqis said the selection of Dr. Alawi on Friday came about when the governing council members flexed their political muscle, objecting to an earlier choice by Mr. Brahimi and insisting that he take Dr. Alawi, himself a member of the council. When Dr. Alawi gathered the support of the Americans, the Iraqis said, Mr. Brahimi consented.

A somewhat different dynamic was shaping up in the rivalry between Mr. Pachachi and Mr. Ghazi. In this case, the Iraqi political leaders are facing down both Mr. Brahimi and the Americans.

A person close to Mr. Ghazi said that Mr. Ghazi had been asked by Mr. Brahimi and Mr. Bremer to withdraw his name from consideration, and he refused.

Mahmood Othman, a governing council member, said the council was planning to gather Sunday for a vote on Mr. Ghazi and Mr. Pachachi.

''They say we have a sovereignty, and that we are democracy,'' Mr. Othman said. ''If that is true, then why are they trying to impose this decision on us?''

In Washington, Bush administration officials said the selection of a broadly based cabinet by Mr. Brahimi would in the end compensate for the awkward fact that Dr. Alawi, the designated prime minister, had ties to the C.I.A. and could be seen as an instrument of American influence at a time when the American objective is to make the Iraqi government look independent.

There was considerable hope expressed in Baghdad that Mr. Brahimi's blessing to whatever government emerged would make it easier for the United Nations Security Council to endorse the new government led by Dr. Alawi.

A senior European diplomat said he thought that Mr. Brahimi's endorsement would make it difficult for France, Russia or any other skeptics of the process on the Security Council to oppose the resolution.

Administration and United Nations officials said they expected that Dr. Alawi would travel to the United Nations with other members of the new government to press for the Security Council's endorsement. They would also discuss the language of the proposed resolution, including those parts that would limit the new government's sovereignty over American and other foreign troops on Iraqi soil.

''As a matter of principle,'' said one European diplomat, ''any solution that results from a discussion between the Iraqis and Mr. Brahimi will get support at the United Nations.''

Dexter Filkins reported from Baghdad for this article, and Steven R. Weisman from Washington.